Category: Business

The Port of Rotterdam is preparing for a digital transformation with IBM’s cloud-based IoT technologies – starting with the formulation of a centralised dashboard application that collects and processes real-time water, weather sensor data and communications data.

Previously, Europe’s largest port by cargo tonnage banked on conventional communication techniques such as radar and radio to establish communication between captains, pilots and terminal operators to make vital decisions on port operations. With the IBM alliance, IoT sensors in addition to augmented intelligence (AI) and smart weather data will be used to collect numerous data streams including weather, water levels, currents, temperature and check berth availability.

These data will be analysed by IBM’s cloud-based IoT technologies and turned into information. The port authorities can use this information to make decisions that can reduce wait times, manage traffic more efficiently, decide best time for ship docking, load and unload among other advantages.

The tech-giant is also deploying “Digital Dolphins” – smart quay walls and sensor-equipped buoys – to support ship-to-ship cargo transfer and provide insights into the condition and utilisation of a berthing terminal and the neighbouring water and weather conditions.

Under the transformation process, the port will be able to host connected ships in the future and IBM aims to host these ships at the port by 2025. Like the self-driving cars, connected ships are also capable of operating autonomously and can communicate with one other to avoid collision.

Paul Smits, CFO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, said: “Here in Rotterdam, we are taking action to become the smartest port in the world. Thanks to real-time information about infrastructure, water [and] air, we can enormously improve the service we provide to everyone who uses the port, and prepare to embrace the connected, autonomous shipping of the future.”

mart living in Dubai has officially begun with the launch of the emirate’s flagship Internet of Things Strategy and Data Wealth initiative, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said on Sunday.

The Vice President and Ruler of Dubai launched the initiative, which aims to protect the emirate’s digital wealth, at the Smart Dubai headquarters in Dubai Design District.

“Dubai’s push to build the ­future today has helped establish a digital infrastructure that is now a strategic national asset in the wake of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said.

The initiative will also award Dubai Digital Certificates for outstanding government and private entities.

“The Dubai Digital Certificates and the Dubai IoT Strategy mark the official launch of smart living in the emirate and we have directed all government institutions to co-operate and fully implement the initiatives by the year 2021.”

Dubai Digital Certificates are the benchmark against which all smart services in the emirate will be evaluated to preserve Data Wealth, Sheikh Mohammed said as he accepted the first certificate presented by Dr Aisha bint Butti bin Bishr, Director-General of the Smart Dubai Office.

Dr bin Bishr said the initiative sets the foundation for Dubai’s smart living transformation. “When we launched Smart Dubai three years ago, we sought to enable people to make use of the vast amounts of data generated every day in one of the busiest cities in the world. Today, as we launch the Dubai IoT Strategy, we provide the people of Dubai with an unmatched smart lifestyle,” she said.

Data Wealth consists of data, data-storing and processing technologies, paperless transaction policies and systems like Blockchain, digital signature and ID, smart living and clean energy, among other elements, reported state news agency Wam.

The Dubai IoT Strategy will be implemented in four stages over three years and aims to build the world’s most ­advanced IoT ecosystem that would mean the interconnectivity of all things online.

The strategy also aims to encourage government departments to join the emirate’s smart transformation and achieve the objectives of the Smart Dubai Plan 2021 to transform to a 100 per cent paperless government.

The Dubai Crowd initiative was also launched on Sunday.

It is the first technical project in the IoT Strategy, which seeks to manage and organise crowds in the emirate during peak seasons to ensure safety and security.

IoT in Lebanon has the potential to cause a paradigm shift in several industries, including agriculture, healthcare, urban planning, and more.

The IoT platform we use at BConnected can accommodate for millions of connected devices & sensors while it reliably handles their concurrent messages, monitors their health in real-time, displays sensor data in real-time, defines customizable complex business
rules and notifications, ensures SLA compliance across organizations and manages pushing software updates remotely across all devices.

The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to connect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of about 30 billion objects by 2020.

The IoT allows objects to be sensed or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit in addition to reduced human intervention. When IoT is augmented with sensors and actuators, the technology becomes an instance of the more general class of cyber-physical systems, which also encompasses technologies such as smart grids, virtual power plants, smart homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities.

“Things”, in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, cameras streaming live feeds of wild animals in coastal waters, automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring, or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations.Legal scholars suggest regarding “things” as an “inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service”.

These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices.

The term “the Internet of things” was coined by Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble, later MIT’s Auto-ID Center, in 1999

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It’s easy to foresee the rewards of leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) for any industry. However, getting a pertinent IoT platform or solution that helps you reach your business goals is far from easy.

Before getting to the pros and cons of building or buying an IoT platform, let’s get to know if your business really requires an IoT platform. Ask the following questions:

How will an IoT solution improve the business or existing processes?

What is the ROI that the platform may provide?

What are the architectural requirements based on which I can pick the IoT solution?

Will the insights gained from IoT implementation help my business in making better decisions?

Will it save enough time and resources that can be utilised to expand my business further?

After analysing the abovementioned questions, you probably will still feel the need to get your enterprise IoT-enabled. IoT can bring real value to any business by contributing in cost reduction, better customer experience, increased revenue, and by creating new revenue streams. To reap these benefits, you need to either build an IoT platform or buy one from an IoT platform provider.

Build an IoT platform

If you decide to build an IoT platform on your own, you’ll have complete control over the solution, you can customise it to make it a good fit for your industry and business. Everything from the data collection to the end-user experience is yours to modify, merge, and maintain.

Building an IoT platform is a great option for companies that have all the required expertise in-house or for businesses who do not find a suitable IoT solution from the existing ones in the market. While building an IoT platform from scratch may require proficiency in all the aspects of IoT ecosystem, it provides a perfect solution without compromising any feasible functionality.

Pros:

Allows businesses to develop a customised solution that provides a smooth interface to connect devices and run IoT applications.

Companies can leverage in-house expertise or hire a team of experts to develop the IoT platform.

A truly tailored IoT solution can be developed that is packed with all the necessary features that can benefit the business.

Organisations can offer improved and refined end-user experiences by delivering an IoT solution that directly reflects their brand.

No need to rely on IoT platform providers to update or maintain the developed solution.

A great option for businesses that do not find a suitable IoT solution in the market that can address their exact requirements.

Cons:

Building an IoT platform from scratch can increase the time to market, thus affecting the trust of your target market.

If you don’t have any experience with IoT, the steep learning curve will increase the risk of failure.

Hiring a dedicated team for building the IoT platform would be more complex and costly as compared to buying the solution.

It takes a lot of research, design, architecture, and development to build the solution. Once the IoT platform is built, it also demands maintenance after a regular interval.

If the solution is complex, it needs hardware, software, cloud, applications, security, and big data analytics to not only work together but also work efficiently.

Buy an IoT platform

While building an IoT platform on your own terms may seem alluring, most of the businesses underestimate the risks and challenges that are associated with the do it yourself model. In such cases, it’s always better to rely on IoT platform providers that have experience and expertise to develop an IoT solution for your enterprise.

There are plenty of IoT platform providers available in market to choose from. The challenge here is to find the right platform that fulfils all of your solution requirements. An experienced IoT platform provider will make sure that you have everything that you need from the very beginning, which is far better than building it yourself to realise later that your solution is still half-finished.

Pros:

This is the safest option for companies that don’t have any hands-on experience with IoT.

Buying an IoT platform will significantly reduce the time to market and provide you a working solution in lesser time.

A great fit for organisations that want to increase the value gained from an IoT solution and minimise the risks.

With a ready-to-use IoT platform, businesses can focus more on their core functionalities instead of struggling to build the platform.

The cost of buying is lower as compared to the cost of building the platform.

Businesses can also get a customised solution from IoT platform providers.

Cons:

Businesses may be delivered with device clouds instead of an IoT platform. A device cloud will allow companies to manage connected things but will fail to provide an application enablement platform.

Companies may fail to identify functional requirements and end up buying a platform that does not foster their business needs.

Companies will have to rely on platform providers to maintain, update, and enhance their platform over time.

Conclusion

The benefits of the Internet of Things are hard to ignore for any industry. Whether your enterprise chooses to build an IoT platform or buy one, you need to ensure that it addresses the functional requirements of your business.

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WHY US?

Our Team’s experience at Multinational Agencies, Production Houses and at Client Side puts us ahead of the Game on Many Fronts. We are not any other Tech agency that develops Systems, Apps and Websites and Comes up with Digital Campaigns. We at BConnected challenge your Business Model first and provide you the utmost solution that cater your needs.